Saturday, December 26, 2009

Kalianna's 1st Christmas

Christmas this year was...well...interesting. Yeah, we'll go with interesting. Let's just say I'm glad this was Kalianna's first Christmas, cause she probably won't remember it. Everything turned out fine, things just didn't exactly go as...planned.

We switch off every other year having Christmas with my family, then Matt's family. This year was with Matt's family. So we had this nice Christmas Eve dinner planned. We were all going to dress up and eat a nice meal and everything, then perhaps watch a Christmas movie before returning home. Then we planned to go back the next morning for presents, and breakfast, and visiting family, etc. Well, Matt's dad was really sick during the week and had to have a couple trips to the hospital, so his mom didn't have time to plan the dinner and it got canceled. His sister, Miranda, and I decided to make the dinner ourselves and surprise his mom with it. So Christmas Eve was back on. We got to their house around 6:00pm and enjoyed a super yummy meal together. Then we started to watch Elf, but Kalianna was pretty fussy (double ear infection) and tired, so we headed home. Around 1:00am, Kalianna started making some really strange wheezing sounds. I went in to check on her and after a couple minutes, it was obvious she was struggling breathing. She's been really sick and the doctor had told us to watch for this. So we called the on-call doctor to see what we should do. She suggested we wake Kalianna and let her catch her breath, then try putting her back to sleep and see if she regains control. If not, we were going to have to take her to the emergency room. So we woke up our poor baby who, of course, screamed and screamed. Until we called Sobaka (the miracle dog) and he kissed her better and she stopped. But then she thought it was time to play! After a little while playing with her puppies, she started breathing better. Then we snuggled in the rocking chair for awhile until she fell back asleep. Thankfully her breathing was better after that. She wheezed a couple times, but then seemed to sleep well after that. Needless to say, we got to bed REALLY late that night (or morning, rather). Then after...oh...three hours of sleep or so, I woke up to the sound of my husband puking in the bathroom. Perfect! He had food poisoning and spent the next 12 hours puking his guts out. Didn't sleep much that night. But Kalianna thankfully slept in until 8:45 because of her rough night. We called Matt's parents and told them we wouldn't be making it Christmas morning, but we'd try and get there by the afternoon sometime. We ended up opening presents around 10:30, and just waited patiently every time Matt had to run to the bathroom to "relieve" himself. We spent most of the day on our bed watching movies; both my babies sick. Kalianna's ears were really bothering her, so she was grumpy a lot of the day. She did seem to like her new toys though! By afternoon Matt was definitely not feeling up to a car ride to Salt Lake, so we called our families and let them know we wouldn't be making it for Christmas. My parents came up and visited us around 7:00 that evening, bringing dinner from my grandparent's party. That was really nice! Christmas didn't really feel much like Christmas this year. It was a pretty sad couple of days. Today, however, Matt felt fine. So we made it down to Salt Lake to open presents with his family and spend time with both our parents. Today felt a lot more like Christmas than yesterday!

As for Kalianna, she was really cute to watch opening presents! She loved tearing (and eating) the paper! And after a few presents, she seemed to figure out that there was actually something UNDER the wrapping! Super cute! Anyway, to end this post on a more positive note, here are some super cute pics of Kalianna having fun with her first taste (no pun intended) of Christmas. And a video of her playing with her super cool penguin toy from mommy and daddy. (She loves this thing!)

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

My Poor Sick Baby

Kalianna got her first tooth a few weeks ago, which I'm sure is not a pleasant experience. Especially when you don't understand whats going on! So of course, she had a runny nose and drool galore. Then, right after her tooth came in, we thought Kalianna just had a cold. But after several days of her getting worse instead of better, we took her to the doctor. She had a sinus infection AND an eye infection. Poor thing! So we got some antibiotics and some eye drops. After a few days she started feeling better. And then tooth number two came in, bringing with it more of a runny nose and gunk in her sinuses again. But after her tooth broke through, the symptoms wouldn't go away. She was still super stuffed up and her eyes, nose, and mouth were dripping like a leaky faucet. So yesterday I took her in to the doctor again and now she has an ear infection. In both ears! Basically she has been sick for a month solid with one thing after another causing her pain and discomfort. I feel so bad for her! Maybe that's why I've been so "Bah humbug" about Christmas this year. I've been so busy caring for my sick baby, that I haven't had time to really get into the Christmas spirit or get a lot of things done. I just hope she is feeling better by Friday so she can enjoy her first Christmas!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Serious Misunderstandings

Last year I wrote a somewhat controversial post about Santa Claus. Well, lately I have had some comments made to me regarding Santa that has made me realize one thing...my post was SERIOUSLY misunderstood!! Matt and I NEVER said we want to cut Santa Claus completely out of our Christmas. We NEVER said that we don't like Santa Claus. And we NEVER said we weren't going to do Santa Claus with our kids. I was simply saying that Matt and I haven't decided how we are going to do Santa Claus yet. Talk to your friends and family. Everyone has their own way of doing Santa Claus. Just because Matt and I haven't decided if we are going to try and convince our kids he is real or if we are going to do Santa more like a game in our family, doesn't mean we are going to cut him out of Christmas all together! I actually LOVE Santa Claus stories and Santa decorations! And I think the spirit and magic of Santa (I mean, he spends all year making toys for all the kids in the world! And he gives them to all kids, selflessly. What better message can we give our children?) should not be taken out of Christmas. Santa Claus also inspires imagination and...Hello! I am a writer! Of course I want my kids to have a good and lively imagination!! My beef with these Santa impostors in the mall and at parties is 1. I don't think anyone should be forced to sit on a fat man's lap if they don't feel comfortable doing so and 2. I like leaving things to the imagination! I enjoy thinking of Santa at his workshop in the north pole, but I don't like my image of Santa being determined for me by department store actors. But as I said before, just because I am not comfortable with these fake Santa's doesn't mean I am going to keep my children from him. The day Kalianna asks to sit on Santa's lap and have her picture with him, I will happily drive her to the nearest one and smile as she tells him what she wants for Christmas. But I do think it is extremely mean for parents to take babies and tiny kids to see Santa and watch as they scream bloody murder just so the parents can get a picture. Little kids don't understand who he is yet. So its like sticking your kid on his lap and saying "Here is a large, hairy, scary man you've never met before. Now sit on his lap and smile." Just mean. BUT when your kids get older and know who Santa Claus is and are excited to see him in the mall, by all means, have their picture taken with him! As long as they want to and aren't terrified. I have seen some super cute pictures of happy kids enjoying the magic of Santa Claus. Everyone is entitled to raise their children the way they feel is right. And everyone is entitled to their own opinions. These are just mine.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

What do you do

What do you do when your daughter takes the dog's bone away from her??
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Grab the camera!

Friday, December 11, 2009

Christmas Card 2009

Matt and I really wanted to send out our first Christmas card this year; we even took a picture for it! But after looking over everything, we decided we didn't really have the money to print out and send a card to all our family and friends. So, I decided to blog our Christmas card this year instead! Here is our year in review:

January 2009: We had an awesome New Years Eve party with a murder mystery dinner, written by yours truly, and we went and saw Jeff Dunham live at Energy Solutions Arena.
February 2009: For my 25th birthday, we had a massive party at the Layton Surf n Swim with lots of family and friends.
March 2009: Several baby showers from work, my family and old ward, and Matt's family.
April 2009: Kalianna Dace joined our family as the best April Fools Day trick ever! (arriving 3 weeks early)
May 2009: Had some professional pictures taken of Kalianna for her newborn pics and birth announcement.
June 2009: Kalianna was blessed by her daddy.
July 2009: We went to Oregon with our good friends, Brian and Anna Johnson.
August 2009: Matt had a friend (Sveta) visit from Latvija, which doesn't happen very often!
September 2009: Both Matt and Kalianna's first time going horseback riding.
October 2009: Matt and I celebrated four wonderful years of marriage! Matt also turned 26 and Kalianna got her first taste of Halloween, dressed as a little fairy.
November 2009: We had a great Thanksgiving with family and got our first professional family pictures taken (technically in October).
December 2009:
Merry Christmas!
With Love from Matt, Stacy, Kalianna, Sobaka, and Kutse Carroll

Monday, December 7, 2009

Festival of Trees

I had never been before, so we decided to go this year when my sister, Kristine, invited us to go with them. Then my parents, Theresa, Bryan, and Ricci decided to join us too! Then Matt ended up having to work on Saturday, so he didn't get to come =-( It was fun and I enjoyed all the different trees. So creative! After the festival we all went over to Spaghetti Mama's for lunch.

Cute girl! She looks so excited to be there, doesn't she?

I love the way she is watching Uncle Bryan

Kalianna's first cotton candy

We took this picture for daddy. His girls in front of the chocolate tree

Some trees I thought were fun

Some super cool gingerbread houses

Cute quilt

Lunch afterwards